Donkey riding sickness

[zangskar]

Foyan said, "I say there are but two types of sickness. One is to ride a donkey to look for a donkey. The other is riding a donkey and not let yourself get off of it. Don't you see that riding a donkey to find a donkey is a fatal disease? This old mountain monk is telling you, don't seek it! Clever people understand right where they are. They give up the 'seeking' disease and the crazy, thought pursuing mind. Once you've seen the donkey, not allowing yourself to get off it - now that is a disease that is most hard to cure. This old mountain monk is telling you, don't ride it!
"You are the donkey! The great Earth is the donkey! How are you going to ride it? If you continue to ride it you'll never cure this disease. If you don't ride it then all the worlds in the ten directions are opened to you. If you can get rid of both of these diseases at once, then there's nothing left in your mind, and you are called a person of the way. What could trouble you?
"Therefore, Zhaozhou asked Nanquan, 'What is the way?' and Nanquan answered, 'Everyday mind is the way'."

Ferguson, Zen's Chinese Heritage, p.434

[ghost01]

from: moon in a dewdrop, writings of zen master dogen

Question: We have heard that in india and china there have been people in the past and present who realized the way on hearing the sound of bamboo being stuck, or who understood the mind seeing the color of blossoms. Great master Shakyamuni was awakened to the way when he saw the morning star, and venerable Ananda understood the dharma when a banner pole fell down. Not only that, but after the Sixth ancestor in china, among the five schools, there were many who understood the mind-ground with one word of speech or half a phrase. Not all of them necessarily did zazen in pursuit of the way, did they?

Answer: Of those who understood the way upon seeing a form, or who realized the way upon hearing a sound, not one had any intellectual thinking regarding the endeavor of the way or had any self besides their original self.